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1997(1st) ~ 2024(28th)
City of Romance : Hong Kong D & B Films Special
Mabel CHEUNG
Hong Kong1987 98 min Beta C
Mabel CHEUNG is considered a representative Hong Kong director, along with Ann HUI. The latter producing more socially-conscious films, CHEUNG has shown her caliber in melodramas with delicate feminine sensitivity — The Soong Sisters (1997) and City of Glass (1998). Her second production after The Illegal Immigrant (1985), An Autumn’s Tale (1987) is one of her best films ever. Filmed entirely in New York, the movie tells of a love story between Jennifer (Cherie CHUNG) and a boat-head she meets through the city’s Chinese society (Yun Fat CHOW). Offering impressive performance as a guy who lingers in the life of Jennifer, who hasn’t been over her old love yet, CHOW happens to appear with CHUNG in two more films around the same time — Tiger Man (1989) and Once a Thief (1991). In An Autumn’s Tale, you can see CHOW at the height of his career, playing a loud-mouthed, nosy, out-of-control character, a complete opposite to his other character in HUI’s melodrama Love in a Fallen City (1984). (Incidentally, he had been working at an almost non-human rate during that time, appearing 11 films in 1986 and 1987, respectively, and nine in 1988.) The perfect harmony between the flawless production design, unforgettable acting, and lyrical locations renders the audience teary after all these years. Also, it’ll be fun comparing An Autumn’s Tale to Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996); both concern romances of Hong Kong expatriates. (JU Seong Cheol)